Almost 800 projects have been unveiled as the government’s new online infrastructure pipeline went live.
The new portal, launched by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) will provide real-time updates on 780 planned private and public sector projects.
Katy Dowding, president and chief executive of tier one contractor Skanska UK, described the publication of the pipeline as “a welcome and timely step – one that brings greater clarity and opportunity to our industry”.
She added: “The balance of sectors represented in the pipeline is also encouraging, enabling us to focus our efforts on long-term skills development and workforce planning.
“We particularly welcome the coordination between public, regulated and private sectors, which is essential to unlocking regional investment and delivering sustainable infrastructure at scale.”
Steve Beechey, group public sector director at Wates, said the contractor hoped the pipeline becomes “a dynamic tool that drives delivery, unlocks private investment, and supports the transformation of our public estate”.
He said that NISTA’s role as an advisory body on procurement, governance and delivery models “will strengthen collaboration and enable more efficient project delivery – helping to grow the UK economy. We believe this could be a turning point in streamlining infrastructure delivery”.
Building on data from 40 government departments, public bodies and regulated businesses, the new interactive online tool will provide details of public and privately led infrastructure projects under construction, in development, or at an early stage of planning, including in the transport, energy, schools and hospitals sectors.
The pipeline outlines £530bn of projects and programmes over the next 10 years, which includes £285bn funded solely by the public sector.
The largest sectors represented include energy (37 per cent of planned investment), health and social care (17 per cent), transport (14 per cent), and the water and wastewater sector (13 per cent), followed by other infrastructure such as education and defence.
It comes as the government announced last month at least £725bn of government funding over the coming decade, as part of a new approach to how projects are planned and delivered.
The government remains optimistic it can update the pipeline every six months, an ambition outlined earlier this year by Jean-Christophe Gray, interim chief executive at NISTA.
Mark Reynolds, Mace’s executive chair and co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council and the Construction Skills Mission Board, said: “The construction industry cannot invest in new skills, capacity and technology without clarity on our future workload.
“The government’s pipeline plays a critical role in allowing us to scale up to deliver 1.5 million new homes and a revitalisation of our national infrastructure.
“NISTA’s new dynamic approach is a major step forward; and the inclusion of employment data will make a significant difference to firms across the country as they plan for the next few years of growth.”
Last week the Public Accounts Committee raised concerns over the government’s infrastructure plans and made six recommendations to the Treasury after labelling the current infrastructure pipeline as “not credible”, saying it does not support long-term planning for investors.
It has called on the Treasury to identify the types of financing models it will be supporting for various project types, such as energy and transport.
By doing so, it says it will allow public bodies to be clearer on how they might deliver infrastructure and encourage investor participation, drive competition and improve value for money.
NISTA said that it would look at how to use the pipeline data to generate insights on future need for skills and labour. Construction News revealed earlier this week that officials had been considering publishing job estimates for each scheme in the pipeline.
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Nicola Harley